New 'Cash Corner' location to be monitored

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The area of Calgary known as Cash Corner, where day labourers wait for work that's paid under the table, is one step closer to relocating a few blocks away.

For decades, 12th Avenue and Centre Street South has been the spot contractors can go to hire short-term labour they pay under the table.

On Wednesday, the city's community and protective services committee approved a recommendation to move the informal work-for-hire sidewalk site to Macleod Trail near the Elbow River Casino and across from Stampede Park.

With the development of a new condo at the current Cash Corner location, there's pressure on city council to make the spot a less desirable place to hang out.

"I think it's a very important [decision] for moving forward in the Beltline and creating the safe environment in the streets and residential emphasis [on the] community that we're striving to achieve there," said Eileen Stan, development manager for the condo developer, Torode Commercial Ltd.

Studies from other cities show eliminating such black-market meeting spots doesn't work, so Calgary administrators said it made more sense to manage them.

The ward's alderman, John Mar, said there was a lot of thought put into the new site.

"We're giving them the dignity of having public washrooms, some form of shelter," he said Wednesday. "This specific area will be secure; it will be monitored."

The plan needs to be approved by city hall, which could happen as early as this spring.

Regulars who wait at Cash Corner had been worried about the city bringing in rules to regulate the exchange, and Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart had said she felt any action by the city would be condoning an illegal activity.